ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE LEVANT

Welcome to the UCSD Levantine Archaeology Laboratory. The lab focuses on archaeological investigations concerning the evolution of societies in the southern Levant from the Neolithic to Islamic periods. Most of the data we analyze comes from our own excavations in Jordan and Israel. However, some exciting contemporary ethnoarchaeology is being done in India to help build models for the past. Currently, the Lab's main field activities focus on the role of ancient mining and metallurgy on social change in southern Jordan's Faynan district during the Iron Age (c. 1200 - 500 BCE).

Through our partnership with CALIT2 and CISA3 we are able to employ some of the most cutting edge information technology and computer-based visualization tools to our laboratory research. This includes three dimensional artifact scanning, immersive virtualization of excavations, and ultra-high resolution imaging in order tofacilitate our research aims.

Our most recent field season, in 2009, took us back to Khirbat en-Nahas (in Arabic “Ruins of Copper”) - the largest Iron Age copper production center in the Levant. The results of the 2006 season produced stratified radiocarbon samples that push back by some two centuries the accepted Iron Age chronology of Jordan's Edom region.